The real mover in getting this narrative started is my brother, H.B. Reese. He has also collected a part of the materials used and written out some of it. In editing and incorporating this material and other contributions into the book, I have made a free translation of it and also made changes and additions here and there as seemed desirable. As to the scope and plan, especially as to the particular persons included or left out, the question will no doubt arise in the minds of some readers: "Why are just these individuals named and not others who were equally worthy and whose experiences were no less interesting?" The answer is simply this: This particular group and their experiences are best known to us, while that of others is not so well known. Then, too, the necessary limitations of space because of the costs involved, compel us to leave out much of which we have, or could get sufficient knowledge to use. Lastly, we present this work on the theory that the people, incidents and circumstances here included, represent the ordinary immigrant's experiences and thus serve to give a fairly correct view of pioneer days as a whole. So if some reader should have a feeling that such and such names or incidents should have been included, remember this omission is not because other names may not have been equally worthy, but rather that because of limitations of space and knowledge we had to choose a few as types and representatives of all the rest. The individual names of these pioneers will all too soon be forgotten in any case. But these pioneers as a class and their deeds, I trust, shall never be forgotten. So kindly remember that tho your father and mother, dear reader, may have been among the first settlers of the region here described and otherwise also closely connected with the group here mentioned, and still their names are not included, yet their lives are included. For the life we attempt to reproduce in picture here with its hardships and adventures, was the life and sacrifice of them all. You may in many cases substitute almost any pioneer name, and the picture of the period would be essentially correct. So, then, this is written in honor and memory of them all, the un-named as well as the named. Thus, then, to all the sons and daughters of the Viking pioneers of the prairie who between the years of 1859-1889 took up the hard struggle with untamed nature on the far-stretching prairies of Dakota and Minnesota, I humbly dedicate this memorial. To all the brave men and women who bore the heat and the brunt of those days of toil and hardship, we, their children, together offer this little tribute of our love and remembrance. JOHN B. REESE, April 21, 1918. _Mitchell S.D._ CHAPTER I PRYING OPEN THE DOOR INTO THE RICH LANDS OF THE DAKOTAS